1995 Grand Am Quad 4 Automatic Check Engine Light & Power loss at Transmission

1995 Pontiac Grand Am Quad 4 118,000 miles Automatic. Here it goes again! Everytime I fix one thing, Something new comes along... The car starts fine, I put it in reverse to back out of the drive way. I put it in drive hit the gas and it has no power. As soon as I hit the gas the check engine light comes on and the fan kicks on at the same time. The engine seems to be running fine and has full power in reverse but as soon as I put it in drive and give it gas it seems like there is a transmission problem. It will accelerate but very slowly. It doesn't seem to be an engine problem. This started after I replaced the plastic water outlet. I also had to remove the fan to remove a dead bird. (DON"T ASK)LOL... Is there any sensors or vacuum hoses that would cause this or is the transmission gone? It was working perfectly prior to this. There are all kinds of wires, sensors, and hoses in this area. I hope I ony messed up something while I was banging around. I can't get the error codes. It says it's OBD1 but only has three pins for some odd reason. I know this model has some weird OBD1/OBD2 crap. Any and all help is much appreciated.:uhoh: :banghead: :shakehead runaround

take it somewhere to get it scanned.
Too many things to just guess around.
Thier could be something wrong with the trans, but that too would need to be scanned to find out whats causing the problems.

Check the trans fluid level and maybe a change of the fluid & filter would help.....

Good Luck

Transmission fluid is fine and it and the filter have been changed with no results. It really seems like a sensor or vacuum problem to me...

You need a special tool to scan these cars. 1995 was an interesting year as everyone was in limbo as to what format the computers were going to take. It sounds like you have unplugged something, quite possibly a coolant temp sensor near the water outlet, or the sensor in the water outlet is bad. There are also several vacuum lines running in this area as well, check them closely to make sure you didn't unplug one or one is damaged.

Is the tool specific to the 1995 model and possibly the 1994? There is only 3 wires going into the connector... Is it possible that the car is misfiring causing this. I just started it and put it in drive (COLD AND HAVEN'T STARTED IT SINCE YESTERDAY) and for a second it went into drive and was acting perfectly normal. Then it suddenly lost power and the check engine light came on accompanied by the fan. I had replaced the spark plugs recently as well. The engine sounds fine but when I put it in drive and briefly floored it, it cuts out a bit. It doesn't have the usual jumping and jerking from cutting out though. When I rev the engine in neutral it seems fine. Is there a way to test the ignition coil housing? It does have some greyish black haze to it that would possibly indicate failure. :banghead:

Sometimes, the simple forward or reverse torque motion on the car's engine, while selecting gears, is enough to either make an intermitant electrical contact, or loose contact.

Yesterday I took the spark plug wires/boots and moved them to different positions. This made the issue even worse. Eventhough it originally didn't feel like an engine issue I will replace these plug wires/boots tonight and see what difference it makes. I did notice after my last post that when I rev the engine it misses pretty bad. The power loss still feels like it's at the transmission but I will try this to be sure and reply later. Thanks...:chair:

The mis-firing is cleared up but didn't resolve the issue. What effect does gas in the oil have? While changing the boots/plug wires I removed each spark plug. Two were soaked with gas and obviously not firing. After replacing the boots and cleaning the spark plugs with carb cleaner each plug is getting fire now. (spark plugs are new as well). I can't really smell gas in the oil but on the dipstick it doesn't look normal, instead of coating it. It looks like it's beaded up on the flat part and thin at the edges. There is also a smell to the exhaust when I drive it down the road but no smoke or anything like that. Also the car seems to possibly have slightly more power when I pull the shifter all the way back into 2nd instead of Drive.